


Learning to Care

by LadyNoLuck



Series: Learning to Care [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daycare, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Kindergarten & Pre-school, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Mild Language, otherwise it is g, which is why i made it teen and up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-24
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-27 12:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/978861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyNoLuck/pseuds/LadyNoLuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi, a sophomore in high school, found himself dragged into helping at his friend Hange's family's daycare, where he meets Eren, a rowdy kindergartener and the current thorn in his side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Declaration of War

**Author's Note:**

> There will be no HighSchool!Levi and Kindergarten!Eren romance. Because... No, just no. Let's just enjoy the arguments between a five-year-old Eren and a fifteen-year-old Levi for now.

The air smelled of diapers and animal crackers. The room echoed with the cries and laughter of children.

  
Levi was not supposed to be here.

  
At least that is what he kept telling himself as he was handed an obnoxiously yellow apron by his friend (as he sparingly called her), Hange.

  
Hange, a teenage girl with brown hair in a ponytail and square-rimmed glasses, suddenly called all the snot-nosed children to her side with the flick of her hand, as if they were her well-trained pets, which, knowing Hange, may not be so far-fetched. She turned to the kids, bending over slightly. Once all of their faces were all fully intrigued by what she was possibly about to tell them, the teenage girl sang, "We have a new friend today!"

  
The group immediately looked over to Levi with glimmering eyes full of excitement, but to their disappointment and terror, they were met with a glare so fierce that most quickly ran to hide behind Hange, save for a handful of older kids.

  
Hange giggled, "Now, now, Levi is just angry that I forced him to wear yellow!"

  
Levi hissed and turned away. He did hate yellow with a passion, but he was more pissed off by the fact that he had to start babysitting brats after school every day because of the last fight he had. He was pissed off that Hange's father, the vice principal, had talked the school board out of suspension or expulsion and into community service at his family's day care. He was pissed off that he had to deal with children who did not know any ounce of hygiene or respect. He was pissed off that he was not allowed to verbally explain how pissed off he was or he would be in even deeper shit with Hange. He was also pissed off that Hange being pissed off scared him at all.

  
Suddenly, he felt a tug on the hated apron. Levi shot his gaze down and into the blue eyes of a blond kid, who looked very frightened that he had just tugged on the scary older boy's apron. Despite the obvious fear in the little boy's eyes, he courageously said, "I don't like orange, but I had to wear my orange sweater today because it was cold."

  
The poor kid was obviously trying to relate to Levi to make him feel better, but Levi was more concerned with the fact that a little human was attached to his leg, and he had no idea whether the boy's hands were clean. If it had been someone his age touching him, they would no longer have fingers for them to touch anything with ever again. Instead, he was frozen in place by the realization that his life was becoming his germaphobic nightmare.

  
Thankfully, Hange quickly pried the kid off him and laughed dismissively, "Thank you, Armin, but Levi doesn't like to be touched much, so we are going to respect his personal space, okay, everyone? Remember when we learned about our personal space bubbles? Make sure you ask Levi if it is alright before you touch him."

  
Levi had already compiled all his possible responses to children asking if he wanted to be touched by them: No.

  
A boy with light brown hair spoke up, looking far too smug for his age, "But you weren't respecting Armin's personal space bubble just now!" He held up an accusatory finger at the teenage girl.

  
Hange sighed, before rushing at the kid and sweeping him off the ground, "Jean, Jean, Jean! I am the personal space bubble god! I control all the personal space bubbles on Earth! Are you saying that I shouldn't use my powers to keep everyone's space bubbles safe?" The boy, Jean, was obviously at a loss for words. "You see, I wasn't trying to invade Armin's bubble. I was protecting Levi's bubble." The boy did not look fully convinced.

  
"Okay, I will just have to ask Marco his opinion..." she started, but was stopped by the little kid yelling, "Fine! I get it!"

  
Levi was so far from caring about the situation that he zoned out after that exchange, watching unconsciously as Jean ran up to a freckled, brown-haired boy who was laughing softly at him. Jean simply pouted.

  
Then, like all good daydreaming ends, he was forcefully yanked back into reality by Hange introducing a little girl to him.

  
"This is a girl that I think you will like very much, Levi. Mikasa here will help you out with things while I am not here. She is very mature for her age and is very good with the younger kids. She won't stand for fights, so you won't have to deal with very many, right, Mikasa?"

  
The small girl with black hair and a large red scarf that was practically engulfing her little frame nodded.

  
With her air of respect and indifference, Levi decided that he indeed would probably like Mikasa a lot more than the other brats.

  
Suddenly, Hange was whipping her head side-to-side, searching for something. She leaned over and began to ask Mikasa, "Where is--"

  
She was interrupted by a shout, "Hey, guys!"

  
Hange looked over Levi's shoulder, and her face immediately dropped into the realm of "Oh, shit."

  
Slowly, Levi turned around only to see something jump onto him from the top of a bookshelf, bringing him and it to the ground, smacking Levi's head onto the carpeted, but hard floor. His vision swam for a moment, before two wide, turquoise eyes solidified in front of his face.

  
"Hey, you got in my way! I was going to show everyone I could fly!"

  
Levi stayed silent and on his back for a moment before asking the little boy for his name.

  
"I am Eren Yeager! Don't wear it out!"

  
As Levi sat up, the boy slid off his chest and into his lap.

  
Levi quietly asked, "You wanted to fly, right, Eren?"

  
"Yeah!"

  
Levi grabbed the top of the kid's head, further displacing the the messy brown hair there.

  
"How would you like to go flying out that window over there?"

  
Today, Levi started his time at the daycare, chasing down a brat named Eren and trying to throw him out the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter on an iPad... never again.  
> While writing a serious fic, I wanted some fluff and cuteness with Levi and Eren, so this was born.  
> Yeah, so, yeah.  
> I hope you enjoyed this first chapter!  
> See you next time!


	2. Counting Past Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi is stressed out and comes up with a childish solution.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I am really happy that people actually liked this! I will do my best not to disappoint you all!  
> Enjoy the chapter!  
> PS: Before looks like Eren's titan form's hair, and After looks like his typical hair. (This won't make sense until later)

A week after Levi arrived at the daycare, most children still feared him, despite Mikasa’s silent efforts to help habituate the younger children to his perpetual glare. Hange did her best to aid the little girl, but she had her hands full dealing with the youngest of the bunch, a toddler named Krista. Though Krista was usually calm as can be, her friend Ymir was gone for the week, vacationing with her family.

Frankly, Levi could care less about getting the little ones to be comfortable with him and even less about helping Hange soothe the endlessly whining Krista. He simply sat against a wall and watched over the whole room with disinterest. Levi wanted to just go and chain-smoke his whole pack of cigarettes. Usually, he smoked just one or two sticks a day, but he was especially stressed out.

A hand suddenly touched his hair, and, knowing exactly who it was, Levi turned his head toward the current bane of his existence.

“Eren, what the fuck do you want?” he asked icily, ignoring the censorship he should have used.

Eren gave him a curious look, not knowing the word, but understanding that it was probably worse than “stupid” or “h-e-double-hockey–sticks.” Smiling, the brat ran a finger under Levi’s bangs. “Your hair is cut funny! It is so straight and long here.” He mindlessly tugged on the other’s hair for emphasis. “And then, it is cut really short at the bottom!” Eren pointed at the shorter underside of Levi’s black hair. “Why’s it like that?”

“Why is the sky blue, brat?” Levi tried to kill the child with his mind.

He had no such luck though, and the kid just tilted his head to the side in confusion, before suggesting, “Because it is?”

“Exactly.”

Eren pouted. Levi did not want Hange to get on his case again about bullying Eren, like she had when he tried to throw the kid like a brick through the window after he had jumped him. Letting out an irritated sigh, he gave the boy a glance.

“I like it like this,” Levi mumbled. “I cut it myself.”

As expected, Eren brightened up immediately and leaned forward. “Really, really?!”

With another sigh, Levi nodded.

The boy practically glowed with awe. “That’s so cool! My mom doesn’t even let me use scissors because I can’t cut straight, but you can cut your hair really straight? So cool!”

_Kids really do get impressed easily, don’t they?_ Levi thought, also wondering how bad you had to be at handling scissors to _not_ cut a straight line. However, a sudden idea came to mind, and Levi smirked.

“Hey, Eren.”

The kid quickly responded, “Yeah?”

“How would you like to get a haircut by me tomorrow?”

* * *

Elsewhere, Hange was rocking the insatiable Krista when Mikasa appeared in front of her.

“What’s up, Mikasa?” Hange asked, worried about how hesitant the girl seemed.

The kindergartener wrapped her scarf tighter and glanced over at Levi and Eren, who were talking across the room from them. Eren was gesturing wildly in excitement, while Levi had a peculiar smirk on his face. Hange was suddenly struck with a bad feeling.

She returned her gaze to the girl. “Mikasa?”

Opening her mouth to speak, Mikasa paused, closed her lips, and shook her head.

Hange was puzzled. Mikasa never stopped herself from informing Hange if something was amiss.

“Mikasa, is there something you want to tell me about?”

There was a pause before the girl shook her head again, a few black strands of hair flying with how enthusiastic the motion was. “It will be fine,” she silently commented on something Hange had no idea about. Mikasa then turned and walked over to Armin, who had started calling for her, leaving Hange to wonder while she tried to calm down Krista’s ceaseless crying.

* * *

The next day, Levi brought a black case to school and did not let it out of his sight, ignoring his teachers’ repeated requests that he at least put it under his desk. The ever curious Hange relentlessly asked what was inside, but Levi would just cryptically say that she would find out soon enough, an evil glean in his eyes. She got so worried that she considered telling Levi that maybe he should take the day off from the daycare (for the children’s safety), but he was required to go no matter what.

Levi, who usually began to get more irritated as the day went on, was almost chipper, and if he was all by himself, Hange figured that he might even start skipping. It was worrying to say the least, especially when she learned that he had not even smoked once today. As the end of the school day closed in as well as the time to go to the daycare, Levi was practically beaming and frolicking. He even accepted Hange’s offer to ride there with her.

Hange was not sure whether she should be happy that Levi’s permanent sour mood was seemingly diminished or scared for what was probably about to happen.

* * *

“Eren.”

The little boy looked up from his coloring book and stumbled up once he saw it was Levi. Armin, who had been coloring next to him, jumped at his abrupt movement and stilled when he saw the teenage boy. Sadly, Armin was the oldest member and president of the Fearing Levi Club.

Levi held the black case in his hand higher, shaking it carefully to draw Eren’s attention. “Remember what we discussed yesterday?”

Nodding, the kid said, “You’re going to give me a haircut!”

Armin, obviously the smarter of the two, started, “Eren, I don’t know if that is a good…” He trailed off, when he saw the teenage boy staring him down. Eren automatically asked him what he said, but the blonde shook his head, finding the floor nearby very interesting.

Levi pointed to the tiled area where a fridge that stored snacks and a sink were. “Drag a chair over there.”

* * *

Checking on a thankfully sleeping Krista in the naptime room, Hange reached into the crib to retuck the loosened blanket. Apparently, Krista had continued crying all last night and into the morning. She finally gave in to exhaustion around noon and would probably be out until her parents came to get her. Hange could finally get a break from her eardrums ringing nonstop. She loved children and was fascinated with them, but even she had to maintain her sanity.

As she began toward the door, she ran into something.

“I am so sorry! Are you okay?” She crouched down to assess any damage, but was surprised at who it was. “Mikasa? What are you doing here? How long were you here? Never mind, more importantly, I didn’t hit you with my knee too hard, right?”

The girl nodded. “I’m okay.”

Keeping her volume low for the toddler sleeping next to her, Hange repeated her previous question, “What are you doing here?”

Mikasa seemed to consider saying something, but instead opted to show Hange whatever it was by dragging her out of the room with a light grip on Hange’s sleeve. Once out of the naptime room and after carefully shutting the door, the teenage girl was directed to look over at the fridge and sink area.

Little Eren Yeager sat in chair while Levi was professionally laying a haircutting cape over the boy’s shoulders.

Had it been anyone other than Levi, she may have said no to letting them cut the hair of one of her charges, but that was not the real issue. The real issue was the malice shining brighter than the sun in Levi’s stony eyes.

She instantly started heading for the unfortunate pair, but Mikasa stopped her.

“Mikasa, this is something that needs to be stopped before something happens to Eren. Eren is one of your best friends, right?”

The girl fingered her red scarf and nodded. “I like Eren a lot, but Levi won’t do anything, so let them do it. Eren needs a haircut anyways.”

Hange was stunned by the amount of words that had passed through the quiet girl’s lips and reluctantly followed her request.

* * *

Eren impatiently fidgeted under the cape.

In a better mood than usual, Levi refrained from snapping at the boy, instead warning, “Okay, brat, you are going to have to be still, or I will cut off your ears.”

Instinctively, the boy covered both ears with his hands.

Snapping his scissors open and closed a few times to check the blades, he sighed at the boy, “It was a joke, idiot. Just sit still, so I can give you a haircut.”

The alarm faded from the kid’s eyes, and he unceremoniously dropped his hands back under the cape. The exchange greatly calmed Eren, and he was now sitting patiently, while he waited.

Humming at the improvement, Levi set down his scissors and rummaged through his case.

His plan was simple. Give the kid an embarrassingly bad haircut. It was very childish of him, he knew, but after spending a week with children, he found himself resorting to these lesser tactics. He was a legendary brawler and knew how to shut people up with a few words or just a look, but he could not use these methods on people half his size and a third his age. Even the feared Levi had standards and morals. That, however, does not mean that he is unwilling to stoop to the level of a kindergartener to release his frustration. Eren happened to be the only kid in the room that made him want to punch something into oblivion.

Originally, the plan had been to just cut his hair different lengths in random places, but he later realized that with his messy mop of hair, there would not be any noticeable difference from how Eren usually looked.

His hand knocked what he had been hunting for, and after double checking that Eren was facing away from him, Levi pulled out a bowl.

He had decided to give little Eren a little bowl cut.

Setting the bowl on top of the case, he then stepped around Eren to look him in the face. Levi studied the unruly hair and reached out to feel the consistency. If it was knotted up and thick, he was going to have to wash his hair first, which would be a pain, but one that he was willing to suffer through for his plan. Luckily, the threads slipped easily between his fingers.

“Brat, I am going to comb your hair first and then trim your hair before doing anything else.”

“Okay!”

Levi went back and grabbed a comb that he would repeatedly disinfect later. He began to work through the kid’s hair with ease. Undoubtedly, the hair had been left uncut for a while. After combing out the chaos, Eren’s hair went past his chin in some places. Whoever cut his hair last had absolutely no idea what they were doing.

“Who cuts your hair?” Levi thought aloud.

“My mom does, but last time she cut it weird, so she hasn’t cut it in a while. ‘To grow it out a bit,’ she said.”

Levi wondered if the woman got frightened about cutting his hair after that mishap and had given up on cutting it ever again. In a month or two, the poor kid would have started getting mistaken for a girl. _Or maybe just a troll doll…_ he thought, smirking at the image that came to mind.

“Levi, how old are you?” Eren inquired.

“I am turning sixteen in December, so I am fifteen,” Levi answered, testing the length of the boy’s current hair in the back.

Eren pulled out his little hands and started counting on his fingers, stopping at ten and pausing momentarily. “How much older is fifteen than five?” Apparently, the kid had yet to learn how to count past ten.

Putting the comb in his back pocket, he reached both hands around Eren, palms facing the boy with fingers out. “Ten.”

The kid looked back at Levi in surprise, before holding up his own hands. He stared at them for a while before staring back at Levi in disbelief. He returned to gaze at Levi’s pair of hands and back down at his own. “That’s a lot.”

“It is, but in December… Give me your hands,” Levi directed.

Eren relinquished control of his hands to the older boy, who left them opened as they were, all the fingers spread. Taking back one hand, Levi left one in front, closed it into a fist, and extended one finger.

“In December, I will be eleven years older than five. This is how much eleven is.”

The boy once again looked back, but this time his face showed understanding and curiosity. “How much is fifteen?”

Levi nodded, and Eren looked back at the hands. The teenage boy opened his fist, making sure to fully extend each digit. “All together, this is fifteen.”

Suddenly, the kid turned and grabbed his other hand, surprising Levi. Then, Eren made the new hand into a fist and extended one of the fingers. After opening both of his hands up again and lining them up with Levi’s hands, the boy eagerly asked, “This is sixteen, right?”

Levi was dumbfounded, but replied, “Yeah, that is sixteen.”

The kid gave him a triumphant smile.

_Did I just teach him to count past ten?_ the older boy wondered, stunned into silence by his own actions and by the visible pride Eren had gained knowing he could now count that high.

Picking up his scissors once more, he calmly cut off precise lengths of hair. It was a lot of hair to cut, but Levi was careful not to cut too much, only enough to free up his neck and forehead without coming near to giving him a crew cut.

Eren remained motionless the whole time, smiling widely, still pleased with himself.

Once he was happy with his work, he set down his scissors and reached into Eren’s hair to mess up the orderly shape he had made to get an even cut. Levi pulled out a handheld mirror from his case and handed it to Eren with a simple “Don’t drop it.”

Excited, Eren tugged at a few stray locks over his forehead. “Thank you, Levi!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, brat.”

* * *

Hange and the rest of the class started applauding, frightening Eren and causing Levi to flinch.

Unbeknowst to the pair, after Levi started cutting Eren’s hair, the entire class began to watch in amazement as the incredibly terrifying, new caretaker made cautious cuts into the beast that was once Eren’s hair. A lot of the fear that had resided in the group’s eyes had left, and their newborn curiosity was almost tangible.

Suddenly, hands were shooting into the air with cries of “Me next! Me next!”

Hange and Mikasa were the only ones that had watched the whole situation prior to Levi actually cutting Eren’s hair. Hange was deeply shocked, but had been beaming for a while now.

A memory rushed to her mind from yesterday, and she turned to Mikasa, who was already getting up to see Eren’s new haircut up close.

_“It will be fine.”_

_“Levi won’t do anything.”_

Hange laughed softly to not draw anyone’s attention.

Apparently, a kindergartener who had known Levi for just over a week knew the teenager better than Hange ever had in the ten years that they have known each other.

She continued laughing while Levi was being helplessly surrounded by an army of little kids who he wanted absolutely nothing to do with.

* * *

On the way to Levi’s house to drop him off after the last kid had been picked up, Hange watched an exhausted Levi silently mourning the dullness of his scissors. He ended up cutting a few more kids’ hair, and then he was forced to sweep up all the hair himself, while Hange helped kids pack up to go home.

The teenage girl had been pondering about something for a while now, so she decided to ask.

“So what was up with the bowl, Levi?”

“What?” he tiredly murmured.

“You brought out a bowl before you combed Eren’s hair, but you never used it. What was it for?”

A tense silence filled the air before Levi pounded his fist on the dash.

“God-fucking-damnit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Levi got caught up in Eren's pace and completely forgot about his childish plan.  
> Also--Mikasa knows what's up.  
> I decided that this fic would be more episodic than continuous, though there will be a noticeable passage of time.  
> The Teen and Up rating is for language. (I thought it was the right thing to do, but I dunno...)  
> Please continue to tell me what you think about Learning to Care!  
> Thank you very much for all of your support!  
> See you next time!


	3. Smoking Gun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi needs more cigarettes and does something he later regrets.  
> And other stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very Levi-centric (the whole fic probably will be).  
> Please enjoy the chapter!

The sky was finally turning from violet to night’s endless black. Levi blew out a ring of smoke, watching it ascend into the darkness. The brick wall against his back was cold and uncomfortable, but he had to wait for a few more minutes.

He had had a long day at school, being chagrined by every authority figure he ran into. The campus police officer, Auruo, had even taken his backpack from him for no reason and had proceeded to check for drugs or whatever, but he found absolutely nothing. The pompous officer stomped away in defeat, Levi smirking at his retreating back.

However, the only reason that the officer did not find anything was because Levi had tossed out his pack of cigarettes as soon as he saw the determined Auruo looking for him from across the cafeteria. The man had it out for the boy, and Levi knew better than to leave his smokes out for him to find. It might not be illegal for him to have them, but the administration had very little faith in his morals and would easily assume he had obtained them illegally. It would be a massive hassle worth more than a pack of cigarettes, so the decision to toss them was an easy one.

Now, though, his fingers were itching for another stick of cheap tobacco, as his last emergency cigarette dwindled on his lips.

His day at the daycare was especially rough because of his irritation following a smoke-free day (he saved his last emergency smoke for as long as he could). Poor Eren ended up getting yelled at for doing absolutely nothing. The kid had approached Levi as usual, but the older boy’s patience was worn so thin that the little boy had not even opened his mouth before Levi started snapping at him. Honestly, Levi felt bad about it and left the daycare early, after a severe scolding from Hange for his behavior toward Eren.

Now, standing behind a gas station name Dot’s, Levi waited for his “supplier” to go on break.

Suddenly, the rusty back door swung open, and a clean-cut man sauntered out. Blue eyes trailed, and once they had landed on Levi, they shut as the man ran a hand through his blond hair, slightly messing up the part.

“Levi,” the man sighed. “I didn’t expect you for another week or two. You are smoking way too much.”

“Shut up, Erwin,” Levi scoffed, dropping his finished cigarette and putting it out with his heel. “You’re the one giving drugs to minors.”

The blonde smiled sweetly, “I can stop giving them to you, you know. I hear withdrawal’s a bitch.”

“Fine, whatever, I get it,” Levi reluctantly responded, watching as Erwin leaned next to him against the hard brick.

“Hey, Levi,” Erwin began, “Would you steal cigarettes if I didn’t give you them?”

The teenage boy glared at him. “Glad to see you have the same amount of faith in me as the assholes at school.”

“Calm down. I was just wondering.” The man pulled out a pack of cigarettes and tapped out on toward Levi as a peace offering, which was immediately accepted.

Sighing with relief at having a new stick, the teenager took an almost desperate, long drag before calmly blowing out the smoke. Erwin pressed a cigarette of his own to his lips, sucking lightly. The two remained silent until the tips of their cigarettes needed the ash tapped off. Erwin spoke first.

“You really have been smoking a lot lately though. You were here just three weeks ago for four packs, and that’s eighty cigarettes, Levi. That’s like four a day.”

“Actually, I have only been smoking three a day. I had to toss out half a pack before I ended up doing more community service.”

“Three a day is still a lot for a freshman in high…” Erwin paused and blinked. “Did you say ‘I’ and ‘community service’ with a ‘doing’ between them?”

Groaning, Levi smacked a hand onto his face and dragged it down in a highly unattractive manner. “Fuck. Didn’t want to tell your ass about that.”

“What on earth did you do to get community service, Levi?”

“There may have been some broken bones and faces involved.”

“Levi…”

“What, Mom?”

Erwin exhaled heavily and shook his head. “I don’t even want to know. What do you have to do for community service?”

Levi choked mid-drag, coughing. The blonde gave him a questioning look.

Still coughing on air and smoke, the teenager spat out, “Hange’s family’s daycare.”

The older of the two contemplated the information slowly before breaking out in hearty laughter. The laughter garnered a chilling scowl from the boy.

“Erwin, you don’t even understand the struggle I go through.”

“The struggle of scaring all of the children in the room.”

“Hey, I only scare the younger ones!”

“That is not any better, Levi.”

He was starting to get really pissed at the snickering part-timer, and he carelessly threw out, “I’ll have you know that there is a kid who likes me so much that he won’t leave me alone!”

The other’s laughter calmed down immediately, smile shifting into a smirk. “Really? Tell me more.”

Levi had fallen for the man’s trap, but he was still too fired up to realize.

“He’s this obnoxious kindergartener that fucking jumped off a bookshelf—a fucking bookshelf—onto me on my first day. He can barely sit still for more than ten minutes. I gave him a haircut, so I know that it is hard to calm him down. I had to calm him down by…” Levi stopped, his half-finished cigarette falling out of his fingers as he slid down the wall. He shoved the heels of his palms into his eye sockets and gave a low sound of frustration. “I feel like a piece of shit now.”

“Levi?” Erwin called, worry creeping into the two syllables.

“I was irritated because of not smoking the whole day until just now and took it out on him, when he did nothing wrong. God-fucking-damnit.”

The man crouched down next to him. “Wow, you are taking this pretty seriously.”

Curling into his knees a bit more, Levi replied, “I taught Eren to count past ten.”

“The Levi, who breaks more people’s bones in a month than there are days, taught a kindergartener to count past ten? Do you need me to take you to the hospital to get your head checked? It sounds like this could be serious.”

“Shut the fuck up right now, Erwin.”

* * *

As soon as Levi got home, his stress from the day had drawn him to his back porch, where his nearly full ash tray was. He pulled out a pack and started smoking through cigarettes like they were burning matches. It had been chilly, so eventually the warmth of his house was a little too hard to resist. He made sure to shower thoroughly to get the smell of tobacco out of his hair, before he got to sleep at a decent time.

School began with Officer Auruo glaring at him from his morning post by the front doors. The man was trying to egg him on, but Levi just walked past, ignoring him altogether. The officer was so mad that he bit down on his own tongue in frustration. Before heading onward toward his first class, Levi glanced back to watch Auruo holler in pain, blood dripping from his mouth.

 _This was going to be a good day_ , Levi thought with a smirk on his face.

Hange made sure to see him whenever she could to give supplemental lectures about his behavior, but despite how much the sound of her voice irritated him, he felt that, overall, the day was going far better than the day before.

In his Geometry class before lunch, Levi was surprised by his own optimistic outlook for the rest of the day. The teacher was droning on and on about proofs, which Levi felt had nothing to do with geometry, when a firm knock sounded at the door. Sighing, Mr. Hannes told the class to finish writing the notes off the board. He went to the door, and after peering through the window, the teacher’s face lit up in surprise and delight.

He opened the door and spoke to whoever was there, “Well, if it isn’t Mr. Valedictorian 2013 himself! How are you doing? Are you here for a visit?”

“No, I am here to pick someone up from your class, but I hadn’t seen you in a while, so I thought I should come by your class personally.”

Levi’s optimistic outlook was just broken into smithereens by the gigantic mallet named his life.

The teacher began to step aside to let the person into the classroom, asking, “Who are you here for?”

“Levi.”

Mr. Hannes froze, and Levi’s fellow students stared at him.

“Surely, you aren’t talking about…”

A blond man with blue eyes appeared and pointed calmly at Levi. “That’s him.”

The boy being pointed at growled, “Erwin, why—”

“Come on, Levi,” Erwin quickly interrupted. “We are going to be late for your doctor’s appointment.”

He did not have a doctor’s appointment today, but like hell was he going to miss out on missing school.

“Oh, right. I totally forgot about it. Thanks for driving me again.” Might as well play along. He would have the chance to ask Erwin what this was all about later. For now, he gathered up his things.

“You’re welcome, Levi. Mr. Hannes, it was great to see you. Next time, let’s have a good chat when you aren’t in class.”

“Y-yeah,” the confused teacher replied.

The two left the class, and Levi swore he could practically feel all the rumors starting, but he really did not give a shit about what people said about him.

“So, what do I have an appointment for?” Levi asked, while they walked out the front doors.

“Well, the doctor’s schedule opens up after eleven-twenty, so we are trying to make sure that we get there prior to his arrival,” Erwin answered.

“Okay, I can’t play along anymore. What the fuck are we doing?”

“You’ll see.”

With nothing else, Erwin slid into the front seat of his car. Curiosity getting the better of him, Levi took the passenger seat grudgingly.

* * *

Levi got out of the car at their destination. Uninterestedly gazing in through the front window of the building, he suddenly was almost deafened by a nearby shout.

“Levi!”

He shifted his gaze and met the turquoise eyes of the approaching kindergartener.

“Eren,” he said in acknowledgement.

“You’re here really early!” Eren huffed as if he had been running. “Why are you here early?”

Giving a sidelong glance at the grinning Erwin, the teenager exhaled deeply. He felt embarrassed all of a sudden with Erwin watching him expectantly, but he did not let it show. The bastard had known this was going to happen from the start. _What a sadist_ , Levi thought.

“You see…” he began, contemplating his words carefully, “you see I wanted to say—” Stopping, he looked away from the kid, only to lock onto the eyes of Mikasa, who had appeared with Armin in tow. Taken aback by his new audience, he returned his gaze to the patiently waiting Eren. Levi raked a hand through the back of his hair. “You see…” Red started to color the tops of his ears. This was far worse than he imagined.

Eren noticed his reddening ears and said, “Levi?”

The teenage dropped his hand back down to his side and rolled back his shoulders.

“Fuck it.”

Then, Eren was being raised into the air and placed atop Levi’s hip bone as if he were a toddler. The boy was surprised by the action, partly by Levi’s strength and partly by the proximity with the misanthropic older boy.

“Come on, you two,” Levi directed at Mikasa and Armin, who were also surprised by his actions. “Let’s go inside.” The two immediately went inside, while the older boy with Eren in his arms turned back to Erwin. “You can leave now. Pick me up later.”

The man gave him a smirk and nodded, “Whatever you say, princess.”

“Leave. _Now_.”

“Sure,” he laughed and pulled away quickly.

Levi and Eren were alone. The younger of the two was still giving him an incredulous look.

The teenager faced away from the boy, mumbling, “I am sorry that I yelled at you yesterday.”

Watching as the older boy’s ears reddened again, Eren smiled and hugged the unsuspecting Levi around the neck. He pressed his cheek into the other’s hair.

“It’s okay!” the little boy whispered into the red ear by his mouth. “You were having a bad day, right?”

Eren saw the teenager’s visible cheek shade with an embarrassed red, and he giggled.

“Let’s go play with everyone, Levi! Let’s play lots and lots ‘cause you’re here early!”

Walking over to the door with Eren still relentlessly clutching his neck, Levi muttered, “Let’s go, you shitty brat.”

* * *

It was just before eleven when Carla Jeager helped the last of her three little responsibilities into their car seat, giving Armin a pat on his head when she was done. Mikasa in the middle car seat was silently listening to Carla’s son, Eren, rambling about something that happened in kindergarten today. He was gesturing like a conductor of a symphony orchestra at the climax of a piece of music.

During her lunch breaks, Carla would pick up the three from their morning kindergarten and drive them to daycare before returning to work once more. She took a big bite of the granola bar that she called her lunch as she got into her car. It was hard to fit picking them up and dropping them off in her short lunch break. Thankfully, the round trip was not that bad because the middle school she taught at was attached to the elementary school the children went to for kindergarten. The daycare was closer to the high school which was a couple blocks away, but traffic was usually light on this side of town, even during lunch, so the travel time stayed under thirty minutes for the whole round trip.

She glanced into the mirror at the three kids, checking that they were buckled and in their seats before she drove out of the school’s parking lot.

“How was school today, you guys? Anything interesting happen?” Carla looked over her shoulder at a stoplight. Mikasa shrugged, while Armin fidgeted nervously. Eren, on the other hand, was raring to go. Deciding to go for who would be most likely to talk, she asked, “Eren, how was today for you?”

The light went green, so she had to put her eyes back on the road, but Eren still responded as if he had his mother’s full attention.

“I counted higher than a bunch of people in class, and my teacher said I was also doing something called ‘math,’ after I told her how Levi taught me! Apparently, we don’t learn ‘math’ like what I did until we are first graders! She gave me two gold stars for today! Two! Not just one!”

Carla’s eyebrows furrowed. _Who is Levi?_ She did not remember meeting any Levis during Parents Day at the kindergarten, so she inquired, “Who’s Levi?”

All the children paused and then showed completely different reactions to the name. Armin appeared to be frightened slightly, Mikasa gave a momentary smirk, and Eren… Eren looked like he had been allowed candy right before dinner.

The little girl surprisingly spoke first, “Levi works at the daycare now, and he is the one who cut Eren’s hair.”

The mother recounted the day when she had picked up a happy Eren and had noticed his professional-level haircut. Surprised, she immediately questioned the boy, but he just said that the new guy at the daycare cut it for him. He was distracted by looking at the fingers of his hands, so she was unable to get any more information out of him, simply reminding him to thank the person who cut it for him.

“I see,” Carla nodded. “I will have to meet him one of these days.”

The little boy started rambling about how cool the older boy was. His mother gave short comments here and there. By the time they reached the daycare, she had high hopes for this Levi guy.

She pulled into a spot and parked. Turning to tell the kids that they were there, she noticed her son had already left the vehicle. Carla jumped out of the car and scoped the lot, before locating a familiar, small brunette running across the lot to the daycare building. Sighing, she quickly released Mikasa and Armin from their car seats. The two kids were exiting the vehicle, when Eren cried out.

“Levi!”

The mother turned toward the yell instinctively and saw a car had pulled up, dropping off a passenger she could not see from where she was. Mikasa and Armin were already heading toward the daycare.

Carla was about to follow them when her cell phone went off.

“What is it?” she accidentally snapped into the phone.

“Ah… Um, we need you back early to watch over the last lunch period. The assigned teacher had an emergency come up.”

Her eyes trailed over to the car, where she noticed a blond man was sitting in the driver’s seat. “I understand,” she mumbled halfheartedly. “I will be there in fifteen minutes or less.”

“Thank you.”

“Goodbye.”

She hung up and returned to her car, starting the engine and backing out of her spot. Chancing one last look at the children and the enigmatic Levi, she finally spotted a taller head of black hair tilted down to face her son. The undercut was intriguing, but something else bothered her as she turned onto the street.

_He seems familiar._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the support!! I am really happy so many people seem to like my fic!  
> Sadly, I am traveling and performing this weekend, so this is it for this week.  
> I will try to make up for it next week, but midterms and term papers are coming up, so it will be a challenge.  
> But I like challenges. ;D  
> Yeah, so, yeah.  
> See you next time!


	4. A Million Needles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi is not a morning person, and Hange doesn't care, not even a little bit.  
> And other stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am a horrible human being. I am sorry that this is so late. I put some of the reasons for the lateness in the author's note at the end, if you want to know them.
> 
> Ignoring all that hiatus stuff, enjoy this chapter!

The first quarter of the school year ended without a hitch, so to speak, and students got three weekdays off because of “professional learning days” (or whatever they call it). Levi was planning on milking the break for all its worth and sleeping in until noon every day.

“Planning” being the word there.

At the ungodly hour of five in the morning, Levi was woken up by a voice that graced his nightmares.

“Wow, your room is just as neat as always,” a chipper voice commented.

Yanking a pillow over his head with one hand and the sheets with the other, he groaned loudly, “Hange, if you are going to kill me in my sleep, just do it now, or leave right fucking now.”

“Someone’s grumpy,” Hange sang in response, sitting on the bed and leaning back to lie on top of his cotton cocoon.

“Someone’s annoying,” Levi hissed. He removed the pillow from his head and smacked the girl with it, glaring tiredly.

She stuck her tongue out at him and winked, “That’s my job, sunshine!” Turning serious, Hange gave him a pointed look. “I need you to get up now, or we won’t be able to open the daycare on time.”

It took a moment for Levi to process what she was saying, but when he did, he returned the pillow to his face. “This has got to be a nightmare.”

“Nope, but it _is_ a three-day dream!”

The teenager boy shot up in bed, the sheets uncovering his shirtless chest, and he stared down at Hange, who was still lying on his legs and lap. Slowly, he asked, “For my entire break?”

With a smile as sweet as honey, she answered, “Three days with the full-day shift from six a.m. to seven-thirty p.m.”

He turned his face up toward the ceiling, expression unseen. “I will asphyxiate you with this pillow, if you don’t get off right now.”

Immediately, Hange jumped off the bed, acting as if that was her original intention, and went to his dresser. She opened the second drawer and tossed him a t-shirt, which he reluctantly put on. After making sure he was not going back to sleep, Hange went out the door, saying, “Finish getting dressed and ready, while I make you some coffee.”

After she shut the door, Levi relinquished his covers and took a pair of jeans from the closet. As he pulled them on, he looked down at the shirt Hange had given him. It was a shirt she had gotten him for his last birthday.

“Angry, but Adorable” was written across the chest.

He slammed open the door to his bedroom. “Fuck you, Hange!”

“You’re the one who kept it and put it in your dresser!” she responded from the kitchen.

Silenced by her logic, Levi simply stomped down the stairs and deposited himself on a barstool at the kitchen island. The teenage girl pressed the start button on the coffee machine, turned to him, and leaned onto the island.

“I also put in some toast for you,” she stated.

He gave her a silent, appreciative nod.

“Are your parents still on that business trip?” Hange inquired, failing at hiding the concern in her voice.

“Yeah,” Levi offered, “But I like it better like this. No lectures. No yelling. Peace and quiet.”

Her worried eyes gazed at him with disbelief.

“What?” he unintentionally snapped.

“Aren’t you lonely?”

“No.”

Realizing Hange looked like she was about to ask him something, Levi stood up from his seat and went to pull out two mugs. “Anyways,” he said quickly, “Let’s get ready to babysit for most of the next twenty-fucking-four hours.”

Nodding in understanding, Hange let the issue drop as she got up to get out the plates.

“Aren’t you going to change your shirt? Or do you actually really like it?”

“Shut the fuck up, Hange.”

* * *

The sun was barely peeking over the horizon by the time six a.m. rolled around. Levi, being quite the neat freak and germaphobe, was assigned the task of disinfecting toys, especially the ones that would probably end up in Krista’s mouth. He was meticulously scrubbing some stacking rings when his elbow smacked into something. Too tired to hide how much that startled him, he dropped the toy and swung around with dripping hands.

Surprised eyes met his, as they peeked between fingers that were rubbing at their owner’s forehead. The motion slightly moved a few stray hairs from a familiar head of brown hair.

“Eren,” Levi breathed out as he crouched down, wiping off his wet hands on his apron, “What are you doing here?”

Silently massaging the spot on his forehead, the boy replied, “Mom is working all day today, so she woke me up early and took me here. She said that I don’t have kindergarten for three days!” He removed a hand from his forehead to show the number on his fingers. “Three whole days!” he emphasized excitedly.

Levi was silent as he brought his hands to his face and dragged them downward. He desperately wanted this nightmare to kill him off already, so he would wake up.

A confused Eren had copied him, asking, “Are we having a funny face contest?”

“No, brat, just…” the older boy trailed off, before sighing harshly, “Just help me clean these toys, okay?”

The little boy considered the request and nodded. Pulling a footstool in front of the sink, he first washed his hands thoroughly in the unfilled side of the sink without Levi having to remind him. To Levi’s pleasure, Eren took the extra time to clean under his nails. Perhaps his hygiene practices were rubbing off on the boy.

Levi stepped over to give the boy space to work and told him how to wash the toys. After being told the instructions twice, Eren started scrubbing a plastic tea set. The teenager watched him, making sure he was doing alright before returning to the stacking rings he was working on. Suddenly, a little elbow jabbed his upper arm. He immediately dropped the ring he was working on and shot a glare at the boy, who smiled back at the face that sent men five times his size running to their mommies.

“I can’t reach your forehead with my elbow, so that was my revenge!” Eren explained sweetly.

“You little shit… that was an accident,” Levi growled, doing his best to keep his petty anger at bay.

“It still hurt, Levi!”

“That doesn’t mean that you hit people back, Eren.”

“But that is what you do!”

Stunned, the older boy’s eyes widened, and his mouth parted, but words died on his tongue, until a question rested there. “What do you mean?”

“People hit you, so you hit back, right? And if people hit someone else, you hit them because they hit someone, right?”

“No, you aren’t supposed to do that,” Levi said quietly, his hypocrisy twisting his stomach.

“But—” Eren began, looked completely puzzled.

“Eren, don’t hit people. Get someone’s help first.”

The boy went quiet and looked down at the little teacup in his hands. A frown was on his face, and his brow furrowed.

The silence persisted, so long that Levi returned once more to the neglected stacking rings. He had just set them on the drying rack when a smaller hand lightly grabbed his wrist. The teenager’s eyes followed the soapy hand up to Eren’s face that still expressed a slight confusion. The boy opened and closed his mouth a few times.

“Are you a goldfish?” Levi eventually tried.

Eren shook his head side-to-side wildly, finally whispering something that Levi could not hear.

“What did you say?” he asked the younger boy.

Cheeks reddening in embarrassment, Eren repeated what he said, but louder.

“Would you help me out if I asked you?”

Levi let the question roll around his mind for a moment before he cracked a rare, lopsided grin. His chest rumbled with his dusty laugh, and he placed a wet hand on top of the hair he had cut a month ago. His hand remained in place as he leaned down to be face-to-face with Eren.

“Yeah, I would, brat. I will help you out whenever you need it.”

Eren’s confusion and uncertainty left his face immediately and was replaced by happiness.

“You smile funny.”

“I don’t smile,” Levi smirked. “My frown is just upside right now.”

Eren took him seriously for a second, but then laughed, holding out a pinkie, “Pinkie promise that you’ll help me.”

Levi removed his hand from the boy’s head and took the small pinkie with his own. “I swear I will always help you out.”

“A thousand needles?”

“A million needles.”

* * *

Levi was placing all the cleaned toys back into their respective spots, when Hange stumbled over to him and grabbed his shoulders, facing him. She was shaking, and her head was hung.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, expecting the worst.

“I don’t…” she started.

“Don’t?”

The trembling increased.

“… smile. My frown is just upside down right now.”

She finally looked up at him and burst into boisterous laughter.

“Shut up, Hange!” he shouted, feeling his face heat up.

“Can I take a photo of your face to send to Erwin?” she managed between uncontrollable giggles.

“Shut it!”

“Okay, okay,” she choked out, pushing her laughter back down her throat. “Let’s get the tables ready for the kids who eat breakfast here.”

Groaning at his new task, he unstacked some chairs and placed them at the tables by the kitchen area.

“What do you feed them for breakfast?” Levi asked absentmindedly.

Hange opened the pantry and grabbed something, before she replied.

“Oh, just… _a million needles_.”

“Fuck you, Hange!”

* * *

 

The rest of the afternoon kindergarteners and full-day daycare children all filed in by eight-thirty, but Levi forgot that he would be meeting the morning kindergarteners for the first time, so when three unknown faces stared at him from across the room, he flinched in surprise.

A short, blond girl stood in the center of the three and gazed at him with uninterested eyes. She was flanked by a very tall boy with brown hair, who nervously held onto the hood of her oversized, white hoodie, his eyes glancing at him before quickly looking elsewhere. The boy on her other side was blond like her, but had a very defined facial structure for his age with a hard brow and jaw line. He was shorter than the other boy, but broader. In his tired mind, Levi thought the blond boy was kind of like a square, while the brown-haired boy was like a rectangle.

Levi met each of their gazes, waiting for one of them to move or talk, but they simply watched him cautiously.

“Are you guys having a staring contest?”

All eyes went to Hange, who was standing between the two sides, Krista in her arms with Ymir at her side.

“No,” Levi said coolly, “but are these the afternoon kindergarteners?”

“Oh! I forgot you never met them!” Hange nodded toward the trio. “These three take afternoon kindergarten and come in for daycare in the mornings. They—”A neglected Krista pushed a little hand into Hange’s cheek, mumbling around her pacifier. “Hey! I’m going to feed you now. I really am! Sorry. Ymir, can you introduce Levi to these three?”

The idea of leaving Krista’s side seemed to irk the little girl, but she grumbled, “Fine,” anyway.

After Hange left for the kitchen area, Ymir gave Levi a look of pure hatred.

“Glaring won’t help you tell me their names faster.”

She rolled her eyes in response, but still introduced the three, “The Hulk on the left is Reiner, Hoodie Girl is Annie, and the skyscraper hiding behind someone half his size is Bertholdt.” She turned to the trio. “The new guy with a permanent frown is Levi.” Without a second to waste, she left to go after Hange and Krista.

Feeling that her business here was done, Annie walked away and headed for a table with her two taller companions in tow.

Levi followed them with his eyes.

“They are usually like that.”

He looked down at his side at Mikasa who was looking over at the three sitting down at a table.

“Is that Annie girl like their leader or something?” Levi asked as he sat on the carpet, deciding that he should give his legs a rest for a few minutes.

Mikasa nixed that idea by dropping down on his lap and using him as a chair, before she answered, “She is actually the youngest of the three, but they follow her around like she is their queen. They grew up closely, too. Annie and Reiner are cousins who live on the same street, and Bertholdt lives next door to Annie.”

“How do you know all that? Kindergarteners aren’t known for their information networks,” Levi commented, resting a hand on Mikasa’s head to smooth out a crimp in her hair.

“Annie and I are friends.”

Levi pictured a silent playdate where the two girls played next to each other without interacting. “I could see that.”

“We are in karate together.”

Levi pictured the silent playdate turning into an equally silent battle of skill. “I could also see that.”

Mikasa’s head shifted under Levi’s hand, pausing for a moment. Turning her torso and face toward him, the little girl looked up at the teenager in contemplation.

“Before I go,” she whispered, “I wanted to ask what was for lunch.”

He gave her a confused look at her word choice and tone, but answered back in a murmur, “Hange said peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and carrot sticks were for lunch.”

Satisfied with his answer, she hopped up off his lap. Mikasa glanced back at him, tugging her scarf over her chin, and left with an ominous-sounding “Good luck.”

Now that she was gone, he could actually rest his legs. Levi rolled back his shoulders, considering whether he should try resting his eyes for a moment. After deciding that was just what he would do, he shut his eyes and relaxed his face.

 _This is nice_ , he thought, tuning out the little voices around the room, _Peace and quiet._

“Levi!”

His eyes shot open in time to watch the loud, little Eren tackle himself into his lap.

Wincing in pain at one of the boy’s elbows jabbing his thigh the wrong way, he grabbed the giggling boy by the skull with one hand. The boy immediately stopped his movement and noise and smiled up at Levi sheepishly.

Levi could not find it in himself to yell at the boy, simply growling, “Brat, that hurt, and I am not your bed.”

Repositioning himself, Eren slipped his arms around the older boy’s waist and pressed his face into Levi’s sternum. “Sorry, Levi, but you are actually pretty comfy.”

Levi gazed at the boy, taking note of how his face was digging hard into the center of his chest and how his back was curved at an odd angle to allow for the boy’s position. Eren was lying. He was probably extremely uncomfortable, but the tightening of the arms around him made him think that he had better not question Eren.

_Eren is upset._

The thought hit him, and Levi stared down at the boy, who did not move. The teenager looked up from the boy and around the room.

_Why is Eren upset?_

He spotted the afternoon kindergarten trio first. Annie was reading next to Reiner and Bertholdt, who were drawing something with crayons. All seemed to be innocent of any wrongdoing, so he sought out the other children with his gaze. Mikasa was with Armin who was excitedly pointing things out in a book. It definitely would not be them. In the kitchen area, Ymir was rubbing a freckled cheek as she waited for Hange to finish feeding Krista who had apparently taken Hange’s glasses hostage. Not them. He drew his gaze over the other playing children, but none seemed to be the culprits. Finally, his eyes landed on Jean and Marco. Marco had a pout on his face as the two boys built something with blocks, whereas Jean was laughing as he placed a block.

With no one to blame, Levi considered just asking Eren what was wrong, but the boy squeezed his torso again, and Levi chose not to ask.

“Levi,” a muffled voice called, arms loosening at his waist.

“Yes?” the teenager replied, placing a hand on the boy’s head like he had with Mikasa, but instead of fixing some disheveled hair, he just rested it there to show he was listening.

“You will always help me, right?” The slackened embrace became tight again.

At the question, Levi began massaging Eren’s scalp in slow circles. “I promised, didn’t I?”

The arms around him relax momentarily at his answer, before Levi suddenly almost could not breathe because the embrace had gotten so tight with Eren also rubbing his face into his ribs almost violently. The boy then nodded into his chest, “You did!”

“Then what’s the problem?” the teenager wheezed out, still straining to breathe.

Finally, Eren raised his face, which had reddened from the pressing and rubbing, and gave the daycare worker a toothy grin, “Nothing!”

* * *

“Eren, I can’t help you with this.”

“But…”

“I can’t eat your food for you,” Levi explained for the third time, “You have to eat it.”

The little boy raised his fork at him, “But it is really, really gross!”

The teenager glared down at the boy and his fork. On the fork sat an impaled, orange vegetable, that every other kid in the room seemed fine with eating.

Except for Eren.

“Carrots are weird and gross!” Eren exclaimed.

“They are not that bad,” Hange tried, after she finished making her rounds around the other children, who were mostly finishing up their scraps.

Mikasa and Armin were across from Eren, seemingly used to his display of disgust, the blonde boy nibbling on his last carrot and the scarfed girl taking the last bites of her sandwich.

Levi, exhausted by this exchange already, was standing on Eren’s right, not really caring that much about whether the boy ate carrots or not, but he did not like to waste food.

“Eat them,” the teenager ordered.

“No way!” Eren yelled back.

“Boys!” Hange whisper-shouted, “Krista is—“

Levi ignored her and growled, “Eat them right now, brat!”

“Never!”

“ _GUYS!!_ ” Hange screamed in frustration.

Everyone got quiet and stared at the usually calm daycare worker, who was huffing in anger.

A cry broke the silence, and Hange visibly deflated, snatching up Eren’s plate and tossing it in the trash on her way to soothe Krista. Ymir did not dare to follow her this time.

Knowing her wrath very well, Levi let the argument go. He may be known for his fists, but he knew to choose his battles.

When Eren noticed Levi was not going to fight with him anymore, he asked if Armin could show him the book he and Mikasa had been reading earlier, and the others agreed and went to throw away their paper plates. As the trio passed by Levi, who had sat in one of the chairs to await Hange’s inevitable punishment, Armin surprised everyone by approaching Levi.

Sitting in the lowered chairs made for children, Levi’s eyes were level with Armin’s own, which were glancing away from the teenager’s pointed gaze. “Do you…” the blonde tried, before shaking his head slightly and now holding eye contact steadily, “Would you like to read the book with us?”

Levi began to reject the offer, when Armin once again shocked the group.

“There are some words I don’t know, so can you tell us what they mean?” the boy asked with a grin. “ _Surely_ , you would know them.”

A smirk appeared on Levi’s face. “What a nasty kid,” he commented as he rose from his seat.

“What do you mean?” Armin responded with a small smile as the group headed to the bookshelves.

* * *

 

On the drive back, Levi massaged the side of his head where Hange smacked him twice, once for his yelling earlier and once for his comment that it was probably Hange’s shout that woke up Krista.

“Armin and you were getting along after lunch,” Hange pointed out when she stopped at a red light.

“He is a manipulative little shit.”

“Armin?” she laughed, “That is positively ludicrous. He is one of the sweetest kids at the daycare.”

“He approached me today when he knew I was distracted and when I was sitting in one of those little chairs, so I was at the same height as him. When I am about to tell him no, he questions my intelligence, using my own pride to get me to do what he wants. That is the definition of manipulation.”

“You are looking too much into this. After all, why would he try to manipulate you when he was scared of you up until this point?”

Levi thought for a moment, watching the red light turn green, and then said, “I don’t know.”

“Well, if we take your _absurd_ theory into consideration, maybe he is trying to be friends with you,” Hange suggested.

“How does that work?”

“He tried to make friends with you on your first day, remember? If he wanted to be your friend this whole time, but couldn’t be as assertive as Eren and Mikasa are, then, being as passive as he is, he probably sought another method, one that was both passive and nonassertive.”

“So, his manipulation is just a passive aggressive way to make me his friend?”

“If it was _truly_ manipulation, then yes, in short.”

“Remind me to stay on his good side in the future.”

“You only have the school year here, so why does it matter to you?” she asked, pulling into his driveway.

Levi remained in his seat for a moment, staring at the dark windows of his home.

“I suppose it doesn’t,” he finally responded, getting out of the car.

“Did you forget?” she giggled.

He ducked his head back into the car, “Good night, Hange,” and went inside his empty house.

The only sound he heard was Hange’s car going in reverse and speeding away as he removed his shoes at the door and flipped on the lights.

He wandered into the living room before falling face first into the cushions of the leather sofa, letting the exhaustion of the full-day shift dawn on him.

After the lunchtime incident and the following punishment, Levi had spent a large portion of the time defining words for the trio. Armin had apparently brought in a high school textbook on geography to read, so he had to fake a definition or two when asked for one. His school doesn’t teach geography at any grade level, so how would he know what “flexural isostasy” is without any context?

Whereas Armin stayed focused the whole time, Eren and Mikasa were lost within minutes, but the photos kept them interested enough. Until nap time approached that is. All the movements in the room had slowed, and all the small eyes were half-closed.

Thankfully, with the kids all napping on mats, that meant no more geography, so Levi hid it high on the shelves.

After naptime, Hange popped in a movie she brought, so all the kids moved the mats around the television and watched some animated movie that Levi knew was older than any of the kids in the room. He and Hange had sat in back leaning against a wall, watching it, too, with nothing better to do. Of course, Hange got far too into it and was grabbing Levi’s arm during emotional or suspenseful scenes.

Soon after, parents started coming by to pick their kids up, and the kids were all out the door earlier than usual, not that Levi was complaining. He was in his house before the sunset, what’s to hate?

He lifted his head and looked toward the television, reaching a hand to get the remote off the coffee table, wondering what the weather was going to be like tomorrow.

His action was interrupted by the shrill ring of the home phone echoing through the silence of the big house.

Rising slowly, he strode over to the phone, looking at the number flashing on the little screen. Levi picked up the receiver and hesitated for a ring, before answering.

“I haven’t heard from you in a while.”

He listened obediently, without comment, for a short minute.

“I understand. Let me think about it a bit, Mother. Good night.”

He hung up, then grabbed his cigarettes and lighter, and headed for the back porch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reasons for the lateness that you probably don't really care to know about: College got the better of me, and my full academic scholarship that I worked so hard to get was on the line (I managed to maintain it). All winter break, I was out of it. I was shut down and slept two-thirds of the day, caught in a liminal space, following the panic attack I had prior to finals. All I wanted to do was write, and I started this chapter again and again, but I wasn't happy with anything. This chapter was born after I decided that I couldn't fully separate my depressed, uneasy feelings and my writing.   
> In preparation for Chapter 5 and 6, the continuation of the "three-day dream"/carrot saga, which I hope to finish this month or sooner, I am going to post a mini-chapter that was a scene from the first version of Chapter 4 I wrote. It takes place before this chapter. I will post it next week, and Chapter 5 the following week.  
> Thank you for reading LtC! And for those of you who continue to read, thank you! I will do my best to not allow that length of hiatus to happen again.   
> Please comment, and tell me what you thought!  
> See you next time!


	5. Breathing Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tired Levi must make a new friend.  
> And other stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy the chapter!

In the darkness of the very early morning, Hange pressed the four-digit code into the number pad, and the buttons’ back light flashed twice, before the garage door began to rise. She walked through the empty garage and pressed the button next to the door, entering the house only when she was sure that the garage door was closed. She took off her shoes and followed the sound of sizzling that she noticed as she approached the kitchen.

Peeking her head in, she spotted Levi’s back immediately. He was cooking something at the stove, a thin headband keeping his fringe out of his face.

“So, you come in through the garage?”

Hange giggled and fully enter the room, “Did you think I would crawl in through a window or something?”

He glanced over his shoulder at her and then returned his gaze to the food he was making. “Well, mice only need a dime-sized space to get in.”

“I am not the smallest person in this friendship,” she commented, waiting for Levi to snap at her.

He didn’t.

She walked up next to him, as he finished what he was making. He slid it onto a plate. “Omelets?”

“Yeah, what do you want in yours? Get out what you want, and I’ll make it.”

Thinking for a moment, she went over and got some shredded cheddar cheese out of the refrigerator. She sprinkled some into the beaten eggs that Levi had put into the pan. “What’s the occasion?”

“There is no such thing.” He folded the eggs into a semicircle. “I didn’t get any sleep, so I thought that I might as well have a decent breakfast.”

“You supposed to have a decent breakfast every day, Levi.” She got out a plate and held it towards the pan to receive her breakfast. “What kept you up?”

Not answering, he slid the omelet onto her plate. He flicked the stovetop off and put the pan in the sink, washing the pan and then his hands. He still did not answer as he put the pan in the dishwasher and plucked some silverware from a drawer.

“Levi?” Hange called.

He jerked and turned to her, looking at her as if Hange had appeared out of nowhere. He placed the silverware on the counter carelessly, and the forks and knives bounced lightly on the granite. Placing his hands over his eyes, he leaned back against the sink, facing the island and Hange.

“Sorry, I am really tired. Did you say something?”

Hange stared at him without letting her emotions show, before saying, “I asked if you wanted some coffee.”

Levi lowered his hands, so that his fingertips rested under his eyes. He met Hange’s stare. “Yes, please.”

She smiled and quickly prepped the machine for brewing. After it was going, she went and took the ketchup from the fridge and joined Levi at the island to eat. She decorated her omelet and took a bite. Chewing, Hange studied Levi.

The omelet was good, but it had gone cold.

* * *

“What’s for lunch today?”

“PB&J and carrots,” Levi answered tiredly. He just wanted to sleep.

Mikasa sighed, “Eren’s not going to eat the carrots, you know.”

“Hange and I will figure it out,” he said, trying to end the conversation.

“How?”

“Mikasa, I don’t know right now, but I am really tired, so can you tell Hange I need some coffee?”

She rose from her spot next to him obediently, nodding before she went to find Hange.

A headache drummed behind his eyes, and he felt a bit nauseous. Levi, despite staying up late often, never stays up all night, especially not just because he was thinking about something. If an old enemy of his showed up, he probably could not even lift a finger right now. His consciousness was fading fast. His head started lulling to the side, when a firm, but gentle, hand shook his shoulder. He looked up at Hange wearily.

“You can take a nap in the crib room. There is a couch in there. Krista is already sleeping in there, so be quiet going in.” She helped Levi get off and pat his back when he faced the door to the correct room. “I’ll wake you up before lunch.”

“But don’t you need help?” he weakly protested.

She pushed him lightly toward the door. “A corpse isn’t going to help me any, so go get some shut-eye.”

Slowly, Levi made his way to the crib room, feeling incredibly pathetic. First, he has to stop brawling to be a daycare worker. Now, he is being put into naptime. The old him would have broken someone’s nose and laughed as they cried about it if they told him this was what his future had in store for him.

He slipped into the room, locating the couch in the dark. After taking off his shoes and pulling the blanket from the back of the couch, he pressed into the cushions and dozed off immediately.

* * *

_Levi was jogging. School had just ended for the day, so of course he was. That was always his routine. Still high in the sky, the sun beat down on him. Summer had not quite relinquished its hold over the town._

_School had only just started. Hange was already back to working daily shifts at her family daycare center. She once again tried to get him to help out now and then, but he had better things to do. A kingpin in the town over was trying to call him out for a fight, but Levi had to figure out whether he should beat up the guy this week to get it over with or just ignore his highness and conquer the freshman college students. Even Erwin said that there were some guys who he would have some great fist conversations with._

_He jogged in place, waiting for intersection crosswalk sign to say he could go. Levi needed to remember to pick up some cigarettes from Erwin on his way home. Erwin’s new job made acquiring his cigarettes much easier. He used to have to get them for winning fights. A bunch of ringleaders tried getting him to join them, when they noticed his winnings were usually just smokes. Even in a small college town, drug rings are alive and thriving. Levi turned them down, obviously. He knew better than to put his hand in that pot. He might never get it back. So, he stuck to lower level, non-group-related fights when he could. Some people even wanted him to lead a ring, a fighting-based one, but he wanted to stay solo and safe. Once you say you ride with a group or you lead one, you get a target on your back._

_The crosswalk sign flashed over to “Go,” and he jogged across. It would be hard to keep doing his afternoon jog with a target on his back. You know how heavy that would be?_

_Levi smirked at his own joke as he surveyed his surroundings. A playground came into view, and he saw a few middle schoolers. One looked over at him with a disgustingly malevolent expression._

_Levi jumped the fence and headed straight for them._

* * *

Levi slowly opened his eyes. It was still dark in the room, but there was a soft knocking noise.

“Han-ni!” came an unfamiliar voice. It was almost squeaky. “Let me out!”

In confusion, Levi sat up quickly and flicked the lights on from where he sat. No one was in the room that he noticed, until he saw Krista’s head over the top edge of one of the crib walls. When she saw Levi, she covered her mouth and sat back down, pulling her blanket over her head to hide.

With a stretch and a yawn, the slightly refreshed Levi got up and went to the crib. “I heard you.”

Krista peeked her head out to look at him and then hid under the blanket again.

“Why are you hiding?” Levi asked, leaning over the banister of the crib.

“Han-ni say Lee-vee mean,” the toddler whispered.

Is Hange trying to get the kids at the daycare to dislike him or something? “Why did she say that?”

“I ask, ‘Is Lee-vee nice?’ Han-ni say Lee-vee mean.”

Given the option of whether he was nice or mean, Levi has to agree that “mean” would probably be the better choice, but Hange probably should have sugar-coated it for a two-year-old.

Tapping a finger on the banister, he considered what he could do. At the rate this conversation was going, Krista was going to start crying, and he knew Hange would have his head for making her cry. Levi had to get this toddler to like him, but how?

“How about I carry you around today?” he suggested.

He remembered how Krista was always being carried. Hange would always transport her places, and Ymir would carry her piggyback around the main room to play. Though he was exercising much less than he used to, having to stop his afternoon jogs so he could work at the daycare, Levi still had a lot of strength and stamina, so his choice was clear.

Krista pulled the blanket off her head.

“If I can carry you around the entire day, would you still think I am mean?”

She shook her head, standing up in her crib and studying him uncertainly, face-to-face.

“Then, how about it?”

She pursed her lips and looked down at her sock-covered feet.

Levi rested his chin on the banister. He was willing to be patient with the two-year-old.

Eventually, after a short time, she looked up at him with her big, blue eyes and said, without any fuss or explanation, “’Kay.”

* * *

No one noticed it initially. Levi had left the crib room with Krista in one arm, so he had a free hand to open and close the door and anything else. Still unsure about the whole thing, Krista gripped Levi’s yellow apron with both hands.

No one noticed until Eren went to show Levi his drawing and asked loudly, “Levi, why are you holding Krista?”

The entire room of kids and Hange quickly zeroed in on the daycare worker and the toddler. At the sudden attention, Krista shyly hid her face in Levi’s chest.

Ymir and Hange were soon in front of the two, words being thrown at them like they were competing to see who could say the most before Levi snapped.

“You let this guy near you, Krista?”

“Levi, I said I would wake you up!”

“How did you get her to let you carry her?”

“You better not still be tired because if you drop her, I swear to…”

The little girl and teenage girl rattled on, but Levi just turned from them, ignoring them with all his being. He placed his free hand behind Krista’s back and crouched down to Eren, who had put his head down when the two girls rushed Levi, his hands fisting at the sides of the piece of paper he had.

“So, what did you want me to see, Eren?” Levi vaguely heard the duo start calling his name to get his attention, but he was admittedly too tired to multitask like that, in addition to him purposely paying no attention to them. He merely watched as Eren looked up at him and quickly hid an unhappy face with an excited smile, his grip relaxing on the paper. Eren turned the paper around and thrusted it in Levi’s face, almost too close for Levi to see everything.

“I drew you and me!” Eren beamed.

Obviously, it was no masterpiece. Levi did not expect one, but he could still easily find his crayon self. The uneven lines of his stick figure body were covered partially by a yellow blob, his hated apron, he guessed. Blue blobs on his legs were jeans, and a couple of red lines around his arms were probably supposed to be sleeves on a shirt. His wobbly circle head had black, sharp-edged hair and a slight frown. He had to agree that the likeness was almost uncanny.

However, above his crayon self, not directly above, but a little to the side, was a blur of red and blue crayon lines, outstretched black stick arms, and oval-shaped head with a big smile and shoulder-length brown hair.

The scene looked familiar, but he could not place why, until Eren explained happily, “I drew the day I jumped on you from the bookshelf! I flew, and you got in my way.”

At the memory, Levi’s face immediately scrunched up as he said, “You mean, the day we met, the day you tackled me and I got a killer headache?”

“No! That day I flew! I did!”

Before Levi could respond, Krista made herself known when she started giggling. The two girls and Eren were shocked into silence. The toddler never laughed. She only ever smiled or cried, so the sounds of her happy giggles once again brought the room’s attention to her. Untucking her face from Levi’s chest and taking one hand off his apron, Krista waved the hand and arm at Eren.

“Is Lee-vee nice?” she asked.

Despite the little boy’s surprise, he gave her a toothy grin. “Levi is really, really nice!”

“Is Lee-vee mean?”

“Only a little, but he doesn’t mean it!” Eren answered.

She smiled at that and faced Levi. “You don’t haf to carry me more, Lee-vee.”

Rolling his eyes at her, Levi explained, “I promised that I would carry you all day. Eren knows that I keep my promises, right, Eren?” He glanced up to Eren, but he caught the tail end of a frown that quickly switched with a smile. “Eren?”

The boy raised one hand and the paper in a salute. “You do!” Eren gave him and Krista a thousand-watt smile.

 _Must’ve been my imagination_ , Levi thought as he stood up with Krista secured in his arms. “Let’s all go draw something then,” he glanced at Ymir, “You are welcome, too, kid.”

“Obviously,” she said, her eyes tracking Krista like a bodyguard.

Levi and Ymir started walking toward the tables, but Eren, who had not moved from his spot, called, “Levi.”

“Yeah?”

Eren held up the drawing. “I made it for you.”

The teenager blinked. What was he supposed to say?

“Thank you” spilled awkwardly from his lips, but the little boy beamed nonetheless.

“Keep it safe until the end of the day, okay, brat? Now, let’s go before lunch starts.”

Eren jogged over, and they were all finally heading over, but soon, they noticed Krista’s whispers. However, the group pretended not to hear the mimicked murmurs of “Bwrat, bwrat, bwrat…”

* * *

Hange’s laughter was loud and obnoxious. Nothing new, but Levi was angrier than usual at the sound.

“It is not funny!”

“Levi, Krista can do better than this,” she said holding up his drawing, where the people were all colored-in blob monsters with no faces or details of any kind.

“I ran out of time!” he growled, snatching the paper from her hands.

“Even with more time, that couldn’t be salvaged. No way.”

“Fuck off.” He crumpled the drawing up and stashed in his back pocket.

“ _Language_ ,” Hange hissed instantly.

“ _Please_ , fuck off.” He smirked at her.

She covered her face with both hands. “Why do I even try?”

Popping a carrot in his mouth, he shrugged. After he swallowed, he said, “You know you love me.”

“Yes, just let me love you, Levi,” Hange grinned.

“I already work for you, isn’t that enough? Anyway, isn’t time to clean up lunch?”

Hange sighed, “I want to give the stragglers more time to eat.”

Stretching his arms up, Levi said, “You mean Eren.”

The girl pressed her forehead into the table top, “Yes.”

“If he doesn’t like the taste, just give him some ranch to dip it in or something,” he suggested.

Shaking her head against the table, she sighed again, “I would, but one of the kids here is allergic to mustard seeds, which is in ranch dressing. There is really not much that I can do.” Levi stood up then, and Hange lazily looked up at him. “What are you doing?”

“I have some ideas.”

“They better be child-appropriate.”

Levi laid a hand delicately on his chest, feigning innocence, “I would _never_.”

“Levi.”

“Don’t worry,” he waved dismissively at her, “I got this.”

* * *

No, he did not.

“Eat the carrots, brat.”

“No.”

The carrots were drying out now. Levi was running out of time and patience. Krista was sitting on his shoulders now, after she finished eating lunch with Ymir. He could not raise his voice with her being right there. The carrots were going to be completely inedible in minutes, so he had to think strategically and fast.

He had only one idea coming over, and that was to convince Eren that he had to eat the carrots for health reasons and such. However, he completely forgot the fact that Eren was five and deductive reasoning was not yet within his grasp of understanding. Levi taught him how to count past ten, not how to complete logic problems. 

So, here Levi is trying to force Eren to eat them, without any other options coming to mind.

“Eat. Them.”

Eren shook his head back and forth almost violently.

Little hands patted his forehead. “I can,” Krista said, “I ate all of mine!”

Sighing, Levi responded, “No, Eren has to eat them himself.”

The little boy pouted, glaring down at the vegetables, until he reached out and grabbed one of the carrots. Expecting Eren to eat it, Levi was surprised when the carrot was right up in his face.

“If you eat one first, I’ll eat one,” Eren explained.

Despite his prior demands that Eren should eat the carrots by himself, Levi saw the potential of the plan. He eats one, and then Eren eats one. Eren realizes that it is not so bad and eats the rest. This may be his last opportunity.

Levi leaned forward and bit into the vegetable, taking it from Eren’s hands. Relinquishing one hand from supporting Krista, he held the end of the carrot as he took a full bite. Holding the remaining half of the carrot in his hand, Levi chewed slowly. It was pretty bad, bland and really dry to be exact, but it was definitely edible. He swallowed and tossed the other bit in his mouth. Chewing, he tapped a finger on Eren’s plate, but the boy did not move to take one, so he tapped again and swallowed. “Eat one. That was the deal.”

Eren looked up at him with begging, pitiable eyes, but a deal was a deal. Levi tapped again, and Eren’s eyes went back to his plate. With obvious hesitation, he tentatively reached across the plate with an uncertain hand, hovering above the carrots. He stopped moving again, so Levi once again tapped the plate. The little fingers went to pick up one.

But then the carrot went for a flight across the room.

“Eren!” Levi exclaimed.

Eren’s face was completely filled with unease and disgust. His lips trembled as he shouted, “It was gross and dry! It felt scaly!”

“If you had touched it earlier than now, it wouldn’t be!” the teenager snapped back.

“But you—!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

Suddenly, Levi was aware of the tight handholds on his hair.

_Oh no._

* * *

His ears were still ringing with Krista’s shocked cries at the sudden yelling, and his back of his head throbbed from Hange’s smack, after she took Krista off him. Sighing, he took another drag of his cigarette and stared down at Eren who was sitting on the steps next to him with his little arms tightly held across his chest.

Levi and Eren were in timeout. They were kicked out of the building all together, left to wait at the entrance steps for Hange to let them back in.

Blowing the smoke up toward the cloudy sky, Levi wondered if it was going to rain overnight. It had drizzled a bit earlier, but the sidewalks were already dry, only mud puddles in the grass and water running along the curb showed that it had rained.

The teenager cast a sidelong glance at Eren, who was frowning, probably upset he could not play with Mikasa and Armin.

“Is that drawing still safe?” Levi asked.

Eren brightened up and took out the neatly folded paper (Levi had folded it for him). He unfolded it carefully to reveal the intact drawing. “It’s okay!”

“Good then,” Levi breathed, smoke billowing from his lips as he dropped and put out his finished cigarette. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his pack and lighter and tapped out a new stick. He lit it and stowed his lighter and pack in his pocket, watching Eren refold the drawing and put it into his front pocket. The little eyes in turn watched him blow out smoke.

“Aren’t you smoking too much?” the little boy questioned quietly.

Levi coughed on smoke, “ _What?_ ” He coughed once more. “How would you know? You’re five.”

“Mutti says smoking is bad for you.”

 _His mother?_ He stopped himself from taking another drag by habit. “She’s right. It’s really bad for you.” He let himself take a drag.

“Then why do you smoke?”

Suddenly, his tobacco-scented breath caught in his throat. He looked at Eren, who did not seem to understand the connotations of such a question. Asking why someone does something they know is bad. Why does a thief steal? Why does an alcoholic drink? Why does a smoker smoke?

Why does Levi smoke?

Levi sat down on the step next to Eren. Eren had asked him without any deep meaning. He does not really even need to answer the question at all. Just some vague, snarky answer would appease the kid. He knew that, but he pinched the cigarette between his fingers, the ash falling onto the steps, and answered, “It makes me feel better.”

Concern slid into Eren’s expression. “Are you sick?”

“No,” Levi replied before sucking lightly on the cigarette.

Eren eased slightly at the answer, but he was still stiff with uncertainty.

Carefully, Levi blew out rings of smoke. Maybe he was trying to change the subject by distracting Eren. He did not really know. Following the hoops with his eyes, Eren was indeed distracted for a moment, but, once the last ring faded into the gray of the clouds, Eren asked a different type of question.

“Are you sad?”

Swallowing heavily, Levi said, “You are too young to talk about sadness with anyone.”

“You just have to be happy instead, right?” He poked Levi’s side and gave him the trademark Eren smile. “Smile!”

Tossing the half-finished stick onto the bottom step, Levi grinded it into the concrete with his heel. “It’s not that easy.”

“It is!” Eren exclaimed, jumping up from his spot.

Two fingertips were suddenly at the corners of Levi’s lips, pushing them up his face into a forced smile.

“See? Easy!” Eren explained, his smile larger than life in Levi’s vision.

At the sight of the boy’s grin, Levi felt his cheeks naturally contracting, his expression meeting Eren’s created one. The movement caused Eren to move his fingers away and see the expression himself.

“Easy, right?” Eren said, his hands still near Levi’s face as if he was ready to catch the expression if it started falling.

Then, Levi was aware of his face and slammed his hands over his mouth. “Shut up, brat,” came a muffled growl.

Eren hooked his fingers around the hands, trying to pry them off. “ _Le_ vi!”

Being stronger than the boy, Levi held his hands immovably against the attack.

The whole time Levi’s ears were red from knowing that his lips were still in an upward curve.

* * *

Eventually, Hange let them back in, and the two apologized to Krista, who let Levi carry her around again. Levi played with Krista and Ymir, and Eren went off to play with Mikasa and Armin. The rest of the day was spent in these separate groups.

When it came time for parents to pick up their kids, Levi remembered that he needed to get the drawing from Eren. He looked around, but could not find the boy in the main room. He checked the crib room and the bathroom, but no luck. Dropping off Krista with Ymir first, Levi went outside to look.

He did not see Eren immediately, but then he spotted him sitting on the curb.

“Hey, brat!”

The little boy jumped at his voice, glancing back before quickly messing with something in his lap.

Levi approached him, saying, “You know you aren’t supposed to go outside without telling us.”

The shuffling of his hands increased as he got closer, and there was a notable trembling in the boy’s back.

Finally, right behind the boy, the teenager called Eren’s name, and Eren jerked once more in response, ceasing his hand movements altogether.

Levi bent over the boy to see what he was messing with.

The crayon lines were obvious, but the drawing was now crumpled, and mud was splattered on it. It was been safely folded in the boy’s pocket, but now it was dirty and twisted up in Eren’s wet hands. The gutter below Eren had water splashed all around, so the boy must have been trying to clean the drawing with the gutter water.

Then little circles of wetness appeared on a dry part of the paper, and Eren’s shoulders shook.

Levi knelt down next to the boy who set the paper down in his lap and rubbed furiously at his eyes. Instinctively, Levi touched one of the fists, and Eren instantly stopped and gazed over the top of his hands at Levi with tear-filled eyes.

“Did you drop it in the mud?” the teenager asked.

The boy looked from him, and his ears reddened, “Yeah…”

Taking the drawing from Eren’s lap, Levi studied the paper. The mud stains were not severe. Since the drawing was in crayon, he could probably wash off the mud in the sink and then blow-dry it on the cold setting, so it does not get moldy. However, Eren did not think that it could be fixed and was crying because he could not keep it safe like he was asked.

Sighing, Levi placed a hand on Eren’s head. “Don’t worry. I can make this as good as new. So, it is okay. Don’t cry.”

Ignoring Levi’s order, Eren cried even harder, and Levi patted his head the whole time.

* * *

 

Later, Levi cleaned up the drawing. The mud was all removed, but there were slight stains remaining. He lazily blow-dried it with one hand and flipped through a cookbook with his other hand.

Then, he landed on a page about making a Mississippi mud pie, and something dawned on him.

There was not any mud on Eren’s clothes or his shoes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mean for this to be the longest chapter so far. It was originally going to be pretty short, but here it is in full glory. I didn't even mean to write a dream/memory sequence. I hate them, but I wrote it without thinking, and I actually like it. It gives you a good idea of what Levi's life was like before.  
> I am sorry this was so late, but I was determined to get it out before finals in two weeks.  
> The last part of the "Carrot Saga" is up next!  
> While you wait for the update, check out the side chapter, Option One, if you want. It can be found by going to the Learning to Care series.  
> Thank you for reading LtC! Please comment, and tell me what you thought!  
> See you next time!


	6. Mud Puddles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi carries out a plan, and, when it rains, it pours.  
> And other stuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to just leave this chapter here...  
> Enjoy!

Levi’s eyes slipped open at the clink of the plate on the coffee table. From his resting place on the couch, he saw that Hange had made herself comfortable again. She sat on the opposite side of the glass table, legs stretched out and crossed under the table with her toes resting against the bottom of the couch. Leaning over the table and plate to not get crumbs on the floor, Hange munched on a bagel covered in cream cheese. The plate that had been set next him had an identical bagel covered in cream cheese.

“Coffee will be up in a minute,” the girl managed through her bites.

Levi swung himself up into a sitting position. He must have fallen to sleep here last night. Taking the opened book from his lap, he closed it and set it aside, so he could grab his plate. Before taking a bite, he gave Hange a look. “Are there even any bakeries open this early?”

“If you are there waiting for them to open and stand with your face against the glass while they are making the first batch… anything’s possible,” she explained, getting up at the sound of the coffee machine beeping.

Unsurprised by her explanation, Levi started eating. He was through most of one of the halves by the time Hange returned with two mugs of coffee. Nodding at her in thanks, he took one mug from her and carefully sipped at the boiling liquid. The heat was scalding down his throat, but it was a nice relief from the cold air in his house.

Always observant, Hange tipped her chin toward the book. “Do we need to stop somewhere on the way there?”

Levi nodded, “Today’s the last day, so I want to get this whole situation fixed in one fell swoop. This is my proposal.”

She smiled at him, “I approve your proposal. You’ll need a break around ten then, right?”

“Yeah… also…” he drank a little coffee, swallowing heavily, “Can you watch Eren closely during that time?”

Hange leaned in with curiosity, “Sure, but why?”

“Just a feeling I got.”

Sighing in disappointment, the girl laid back onto the carpet.

“Fine, I got it.”

* * *

The day was going well so far.

The trio was off doing their own thing without bothering Levi much, so he could jot some notes down on a piece of paper for later. He is not quite used to doing things like this, but he wanted to do it right. Doing it right would guarantee the optimal outcome. At least… that’s the theory he was running with.

However, writing some notes did not take up all his time, of course. He spent some time carrying Krista around at her request. A couple minutes were spent in a staring contest with Annie, who instigated it from across the room, without a word. She lost and then turned it into a glaring contest, which her two friends and Hange had to stop because some of the children were getting upset and frightened. Most of his free time was spent doing the job he was technically supposed to always be doing: supervising the children.

He tended to supervise Eren’s group the most because of what he asked Hange to do earlier, but he took the time to properly watch the other children from his usual spot on the floor against the wall. Levi did not usually have the time or lack of distraction to systematically observe every kid in the daycare, but now he did, and he was learning some things.

For instance, Annie talks, and, for some reason, that surprised him more than finding out Krista talks. Shockingly, Annie also smiles. Rarely and barely, but it was there. Her companions, square and rectangle—Reiner and Bertholdt—seemed to get stunned by it, too. Levi found that odd since they were supposedly so close, but they _are_ five, and Annie is… well, Annie. Another thing he learned was that the group does not exactly follow the queen-and-servants dynamic that everyone believes it does. Though she is the decision maker for the group, it is not because of her authority that the two guys go along with her. They are actually treating her like a younger sibling or something like that. Reiner and Berthodlt bring to mind doting parents, rather than minions. Instead of a queen and her servants, it is more like two kings and the princess-in-training.

Eventually, he started observing Jean. Marco was not there when he looked over, which was unusual to say the least. Alone, Jean appeared frustrated, cutting aggressively at construction paper with dull, kid-friendly scissors. He went through three sheets of paper: green, red, and yellow. The haphazard shapes he cut out were gathered in a pile, which looked like a miniature pile of leaves. There was a momentary lull in his movement as Eren shrieked with laughter across the room. The sudden burst of noise had sent the scissors out of Jean’s surprised fingers and off to his side. He glared at Eren and did not move for a time. When he moved his glare to the pile, he shoved his little hands into the pile of paper scraps and caught some in each hand, crushing them. And suddenly, Jean’s spot was experiencing a rain of autumn-colored paper pieces as he threw the fistfuls of paper into the air and picked them up to throw them again.

Levi immediately got up and went over, grabbing the little boy’s arms to stop him, and Jean resisted. “Stop making a mess, Jean!” Levi demanded.

“Shut up!” Jean pulled against Levi’s grip. The last airborne pieces landed, scattered all around.

“What’s wrong with you? Throwing stuff all over the place…” the teenager scowled and let Jean’s arms go, “Show some respect. This isn’t your house. Mommy and Daddy aren’t cleaning up this mess for you.”

“I know!” the boy growled. “I am not a baby!”

“Then act like it!” Levi snapped, and he saw the telltale widening of Jean’s eyes and wince across his shoulders. He was scared.

That was not good. He continued with a softer tone, “Just get a broom and dust pan, and clean this up. Okay?”

The kid hopped up and went to get the broom and dust pan as directed, and he began cleaning without another word from Levi, who had gone to Hange to explain, after seeing her sending mental daggers at him with her eyes. She accepted his explanation and waved off her disapproval, mostly agreeing with his procedure.

“You didn’t have to yell.”

“He was angry and yelling, too,” Levi argued, watching Jean sweep the paper scraps into the dust pan.

“That’s not a reason to lose your cool. Speaking of cool, my cousin will let you in when you go over.”

“’Speaking of cool?’ Your cousin and cool aren’t connected at all.”

“I was transitioning! I needed to bring it up, so I did.”

“Wouldn’t a better segway be ‘Speaking of losing your cool, my cousin—you know, the quiet one—will be in your way the entire time. Won’t that just annoy you?!’” Levi said with an exaggerated voice tone and hand gestures.

“I suppose, but Petra is a good kid! Pretty rad, I’d say. So my transition fits.”

Jean was on his knees picking up the paper pieces stuck in the floor and putting them in the dust pan as Levi offered a simple “Whatever.”

* * *

“Where’d Levi go?” Eren asked.

Hange checked her watch. _10:34 a.m. Already time then?_

“He’s on break,” she said.

“So he’s smoking outside? I’ll go sit with him.”

Eren was already walking toward the front door, so Hange had to jog to stop him. The little boy gave her a confused expression.

“No, he is not at the daycare right now.”

He looked at her like she just told him Levi does not exist anymore, absolutely deflated.

Quickly, she continued, “He will be back in a little! Play with me until he comes back, okay?”

Frowning slightly, Eren shook his head. “I’ll just play with Armin and Mikasa.” Not noticing the hurt in Hange’s face, he went off toward his friends.

She walked over to a wall and pressed her forehead against it.

“Am I not good enough?” she sighed.

“No, Eren just likes Levi a lot.”

Hange turned her head and saw Marco watching her with worried eyes.

“I know, Marco, but it still hurts my feelings when he doesn’t want to play with me, even though he has known me longer.”

He gave her a sweet grin. “I think he just gets along better with Levi. Jean says Eren treats Levi like his mom, but I think they are more like brothers.”

Humming, Hange commented, “I’d say they are more like best friends, like you and Jean.”

“B-best friends? Me and Jean?” the boy blushed.

“Aren’t you?” she beamed at him.

Thinking for a moment, he nodded enthusiastically, “We are!” Then suddenly, his face went downcast. “But we are fighting right now.”

Hange turned fully toward the boy, squatting down next to him. “Oh? Fighting about what?”

“I don’t want Jean to get in trouble.”

“Did he do something bad?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then he can’t get in trouble, can he?” She ruffled Marco’s hair. “So tell me what’s up.”

“Well—” he began, when Hange’s arm was yanked.

She looked toward the culprit, a little boy with desperate, blue eyes. “Armin?”

“Eren’s missing!”

* * *

“All set,” Levi said aloud. He managed to finish earlier than he thought. At least Hange was letting him borrow her place for this. It was just across the street from the daycare, so it was really convenient.

He washed his hands and then checked over everything. On his way out the door, he stopped in the living room to tell Hange’s cousin to watch everything. After going through a short list of things, he asked, “Got everything, Petra?” The girl nodded at him with a light blush. Maybe she was a little sick or something. “Don’t breath on anything if you aren’t feeling well.”

“Okay, Levi,” her face reddened some more.

He had to hurry back, so he left without another word.

* * *

Hange’s house was set back pretty far from the road, but it was not a bad walk. Levi was taking his time, examining the flowers and trees along the driveway with care.

However, that was when he felt a droplet hit the tip of his nose. He looked up and saw that the sky had darkened since he walked over the first time. Another drop hit him in the eye, causing him the scrunch the eye closed, the water escaping out of the corner of his eye and down his cheek. In moments, the driveway went from polka dots of wetness to a uniform sheen of rain bouncing of its surface. Levi started running. He did not bring an umbrella today, his mind fully set on his plan. As he quickly approached the road, the whistling of the wind through the trees around him mixed with yells, and he found himself speeding up at the sound.

Finally, at the road, the screams and situation were clear.

“Give it back!” Eren yelled, struggling to stay standing in the mud.

A familiar face gave him a smug look, the person holding a paper over his head.

Without even checking the road, Levi ran forward, faintly hearing a car horn.

Two hands pushed against Eren’s chest, and he fell back, but Levi cushioned his fall in time, both landing in the mud.

“Look, your mommy showed up to save you, you baby.”

Eren looked down at Levi, frustrated tears running down his face. “Levi…”

The teenager’s head was throbbing again. It was all so familiar. Eren was surely going to give him a concussion one of these days. He felt mud and dirt getting into his shoes and hair, but, for just this once, he ignored it, sitting up. Directing his glare appropriately, he growled, “ _Jean_.”

“You aren’t that scary, you know. All covered in mud,” the little boy laughed.

“You are pushing your luck, Jean,” Levi hissed, rain dripping off his chin.

“It’s not my fault that Eren’s a big baby!” Jean argued, taking a step back.

Eren cried silently against Levi, and Levi put a reassuring hand on his back. “You are the only baby I see here, Jean.”

“I fight for myself! Eren can’t fight for himself! _You_ fight for him! So he is a baby!”

“Fighting alone doesn’t mean you are strong!” Levi yelled, and he stopped at his own words. The rain suddenly poured down on them with renewed vigor.

Jean shouted over the rumbling thunder, “At least, I am better than Eren!” He grabbed the paper with both hands and tore it, over and over again. The tiny pieces fell into the mud, the image completely lost.

“Jean!” came a yell, and Jean jolted at the call.

Levi looked to the entrance of the daycare where, under the covered porch, Hange stood, giving Levi a thoughtful look. He looked away from her to a boy standing at her side, the one calling to Jean.

Marco huffed, before yelling again, “Please stop this, Jean!”

“But, I—!”

“Jean, that’s enough,” Hange chimed in, her voice low.

Cornered, Jean saw all the people watching him, the number growing due to curious kids coming onto to porch to see what was going on. He looked from Marco to Hange to Annie, and he swiveled around to meet Levi’s calm, but pissed, gaze, before meeting Eren’s peeking eyes, tears quietly streaming down his face with the rain. A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky as ground-trembling thunder roared, and Jean was suddenly on his knees in the puddle of mud and torn paper, crying loudly. Marco ran into the rain and to Jean’s side to soothe his best friend.

Exhaustion of the past three days was all at once hanging on Levi’s shoulders, and he let himself lay back down in the mud. He needed a moment to catch his breath, and he lazily patted Eren’s back. The situation was now over, and the boy was calming down. He was not trembling, but he gripped the hem of Levi’s t-shirt tightly, so he was probably still crying. Levi needed to just lie there for right now, so he just kept patting, letting Eren cry his eyes dry.

* * *

“ _How’s the cleaning going?_ ”

“Jean and Marco are taking a bath first. Petra is watching them, so they don’t drown,” Levi reported, grimacing at his mud-caked arms.

“ _So you’re just dripping mud everywhere in my house?_ ”

“No, Eren and I are sitting on towels outside of the bathroom.” Eren was wiping at his eyes. _Some dirt must have gotten in them_ , Levi thought.

“ _Are you holding my clean house phone with your muddy hands to your muddy ear?_ ”

“Of course not! It’s on speaker next to us.”

“ _Good. Did Petra find clothes for everyone?_ ”

“She said she did. Your old clothes for the kids, and some of your sweats for me.”

“ _I don’t want those sweatpants back after you’ve gone commando with them._ ”

Levi rolled his eyes, “I got it.”

“ _Did Petra give you an update on the other thing?_ ”

He glanced at Eren, who was absorbed in getting the mud out from under his nails.

“I should be able to finish things up after everyone is clean.”

“ _Well, the rain hasn’t let up, so you should probably handle it over there and take the kids back when the rain stops. Petra and you can make them some sandwiches for lunch. I have to go now, but you understand what I want you to do, right?_ ”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. Bye.”

The line clicked off, and, minutes later, Jean and Marco, fresh and clean, came out. They looked a little afraid, and their skin was a light red.

“Can we just stay with you in the bathroom, Levi, please?” Marco begged.

“She is scarier than you!” Jean elaborated.

Two hands landed on their shoulders, and Petra bent down to their height. “No mud was to be left as Levi instructed. So I scrubbed you down a bit hard to get you clean.” She smiled at Levi. “Is this good?”

Levi looked them over. “Perfect.”

Her smile grew, and she stepped from the doorway, clearing Jean and Marco to the side as well. Levi carefully walked on the placed line of towels that led to the tub to avoid getting the floor dirty. Eren followed and sat down on one of the towels as he was directed to earlier. Moving to take off his shirt, he looked back, and Petra was there with her hand on the door, staring.

“Could you shut the door?” he asked. He could not touch the door with his mud-covered hands.

She squeaked and turned scarlet, slamming the door immediately.

“Okay then…” he trailed off, starting to cautiously remove his clothing garment by garment and putting them on the pile of Jean and Marco’s muddy clothes. He pulled off his jeans and went to pull off his underwear when he remembered Eren was in the room and his back was bare. Levi reached back to cover it, but Eren already saw.

“What are those lines on your back?” he asked innocently.

Upset with his carelessness, Levi took off his underwear and went into tub. He pulled the curtain closed. Maybe he would forget about, maybe he would get distracted, maybe—

“Levi?”

“They’re scars.” He turned on the water for the shower head, not caring if it was cold water.

“From what?” Levi could tell it was just honest curiosity driving these questions, but it somehow felt like he was being interrogated.

“Remember how I told you to get help first when someone hurts you?”

“Yeah!”

Levi closed his eyes and let the water wash the mud from his face and hair. The mud from his hair trailed down his back. “I used to have no one who would help me, and I fought on my own.”

“But what about your friends?”

He raked his fingers through his hair. “They didn’t know I needed their help.”

“Why didn’t you tell them you needed help?”

“I didn’t know _I_ needed their help.” Levi grabbed the shampoo and squirted some in his hand. “I thought I was stronger than anyone because I beat up a few guys.”

“But you _are_ really strong, Levi!”

“I am _now_ , but this was back when I first started fighting people. I wasn’t born strong. I became strong.” Levi scrubbed his hair into bubbles with the shampoo. “But since I wasn’t as strong as I thought, I picked a fight with someone stronger than me, and I got punished for that. I lost in the worst way.”

“So, he hurt you really bad?”

Washing the shampoo out, he picked up the body wash and started cleaning the mud from his skin. “Yeah, he hurt me really bad, but some people helped me before I got hurt too bad.”

“Who?”

“My friends,” Levi fought a smile.

“Hange?”

“Yeah, she whacked the guy’s leg with a bat—wait, pretend you didn’t hear that. Actually, the whole story is a secret, okay?”

“Okay!”

Levi looked at his skin. The mud was not coming off easily. _Could it have been because we let it dry? But what about Eren—Oh, no._

“Hey, Eren, I am going to need you to get in the shower now. Are you okay with sharing with me?”

“Sure!”

Once he had Eren in with him, he ran his fingers through the boy’s crazed hair.

“God _damnit_.”

His hair was full of dried mud.

* * *

After spending so long vigorously washing the mud out of Eren’s hair, Levi still did not get to take a break. Making lunch for everyone in the kitchen, he stood in the annoyingly long-legged sweatpants and long-sleeved sweatshirt, the sleeves so long on him that they covered his entire extended hand. He could only make them sandwiches though. When he was finishing making his sandwich, Petra came to him and told him that she had finished the other thing he asked her to do. He nodded in thanks and tried to ignore her lingering gaze as she went back to sit with the boys who were watching television.

He began working on another thing, when he found out someone had snuck away from the living room, but it was not the person he would have expected.

“Marco? What do you want?”

The kid made an uncertain expression. He probably did not exactly find Levi that friendly. “I… um… wanted to tell you something.”

With everything that had happened, he let Marco take his full attention. “Go ahead.”

Marco stared at his toes, leaning back on his heels, fingers tugging at the hem of his borrowed shirt. “Jean isn’t bad.” He fisted the fabric in his fingers. “Jean is really nice. He is. He’s friends with Eren, you know. He is! I’m not lying…”

“It is hard to believe they are friends.” Levi leaned back against the counter. “He treated Eren like shit—I mean, he treated him bad.”

“Eren and Jean fight, but they just like fighting. Before you came, they were always compi—compat—”

“Competing?” Levi offered.

“Yeah! They climbed on the bookcases to see who could climb the highest before Hange stopped them. They were friends, really!” Marco gave him an earnest look.

“So, they were kind of like rivals then?” The boy nodded. “What changed?”

“You came, and Eren would play with you and not Jean. Jean just wants to play with Eren again, but you are always with him now. He started calling Eren a baby, and I didn’t know he had also started bullying him. I found out today about the drawing. I got mad at him and played by myself… I probably hurt Jean’s feelings, so he—”

The teenager raised a hand, stopping Marco’s explanation. Nodding, he said, “I think I get the gist. I took away his friend, so I guess it’s my fault, but Jean was wrong. He is in trouble, even if he had a good reason. Eren could have gotten seriously hurt today, and I have a bump on the back of my head.” Levi rubbed the spot. “I also have some little cuts, and I will have bruises on my back tomorrow. He is definitely going to get punished.”

Marco’s face scrunched up, and he snapped his gaze to the floor.

“But I am not going to punish him.”

The boy looked back up instantly.

“I am a little pissed, but I can take some dings,” Levi shrugged, “I’ll probably talk to him, but I am not going to punish him.”

Marco smiled widely, “Thank you, Levi!”

Waving a hand at the boy, he sighed, “Don’t get so happy. He still has to face Hange.” The smile fell quickly at the name. “There’s still hope though. She’ll listen to you.” Levi turned and picked up two plates with sandwiches, handing them to Marco. “This is yours and Jean’s lunches. I’ll bring in Eren’s in a second, so head back, okay?” The boy nodded and headed off obediently.

Levi turned toward the counter and rested his hands on the edge, laying his head again a cabinet door. “Being a nice guy is annoying. I have the biggest fucking headache, and I can’t even scream at anyone. My shoulders and neck hurt like hell.” He listened to the noise of superheroes and kids’ laughter. The kids cheered him on as the superhero called some powerful move’s name, muffled by the distance. “They probably wouldn’t call if I got seriously hurt, would they?” His fingernails scratched the underside of the counter. “What am I even thinking about? So stupid.” He left the counter where the sandwiches sat on their plates and uncovered a little pan, brandishing a knife. “…Of course, they wouldn’t.” Levi stabbed the knife into the pan. “They never have.” He rolled back his shoulders. “Fuck, that call is actually getting to me.”

He stabbed again.

“So fucking stupid.”

* * *

“Hey, brat, you have something special today.”

The boy was glued to the animated battle on the television, but turned as soon as he recognized the voice. “Special?”

Levi handed Petra her plate and sat next to Eren to give him his. The sandwich was there, but there was also…

“Cake!” Eren exclaimed, eyes excited.

Jean and Marco looked like they were jealous, but they did not really have the right to request things anymore today, or that was at least how they felt because they did not voice their envy.

The unevenly cut piece of cake was sitting next to his sandwich. There was a thin coating of white frosting.

“I baked that today, so you better like it,” Levi explained as he handed Eren a fork.

Eren gaped, “You made this, Levi? What flavor is it?”

“Eat it and find out,” the teenager smirked.

The little boy dug in and stuffed his first bite in. He chewed fast at first, beaming, but his chewing slowed as a perplexed expression came onto his face. Eren swallowed, but did not say anything.

“Is it good?” Levi asked.

Nodding, the boy answered, “It’s really, really good.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“What flavor is it? It’s not chocolate or vanilla.” Even confused, Eren took a second bite, enjoying it more this time after getting used to the new flavor.

After the second bite was swallowed and Eren was getting more, the teenager boy said, “It’s carrot cake.”

The boy dropped his fork instantaneously, as if the utensil had burned him. His feeling of betrayal was evident on his face with his eyebrows furrowed in disbelief.

“I am not lying. I cut up a bunch of carrots, mixed it with some other stuff, and made a cake. A cake you like,” Eren opened his mouth to argue, but Levi continued, “You already admitted you liked it.”

“But—“

“Take another bite, and tell me you don’t like it.”

Eren’s eyes widened in desperation, begging for this to be a joke.

“Do it,” Levi pressed.

With clear hesitation, the little boy reclaimed his fork off the plate, scooping out a bit. Eren examined it closely, and miniscule orange flecks told him that there was indeed carrot in this cake. Shakily, he slowly brought the cake into his mouth. After a few moments of letting the cake sit on his tongue, he began to chew it. The other boys, Levi, and Petra waited for him to swallow, and, when he did, they awaited the verdict.

“It’s okay…” Eren pouted.

Levi smiled in victory, ruffling the boy’s hair as he took another bite.

Petra asked, “Is the frosting okay? I put on vanilla frosting, but I didn’t know if you would like it…”

“The frosting is good…” Eren mumbled through his mouthful of cake.

Levi bopped the boy’s head lightly. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.” He turned to the two boys. “I baked enough if you want some.”

“We can have some?” Marco said uncertainly.

“Yeah, bring Jean’s plate and yours, and I’ll get you some.”

Obediently following the order, Marco went ahead of him into the kitchen. Levi looked back into the room. Petra was already absentmindedly eating her sandwich, not watching the kids as closely as Levi had directed, but he let it slide, when he saw the boys.

Eren had stabbed his last bit of cake with his fork and held it to Jean.

“Would you like to try it?” Eren asked, bravely cutting through the tension between them.

Jean was clearly startled, but he extended his arm and wrapped his tentative fingers around the stem, accepting the fork.

“I’ll try.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The three-part saga is finally over, which means back to one-chapter events and time skips. The next chapter takes place a month after this, in November. Who would have thought 3 days would take almost a year to do... I am so sorry....
> 
> MOVING ON! - Some Notes  
> I had a bunch of ideas for the chapter title, but I kept the original title in the end... (like "Good Kids" was another possibility)  
> This chapter was pretty long!!! 4648 words....  
> Levi lost a fight once? Yep. Am I going to go into detail on this fight? Not anytime soon. Why? What happened in that fight is not important right now. If it is later, I'll include it, but for now, don't worry too much.  
> Jean was bullying Eren? Yep. I do not promote bullying, and if you see kids bullying others, stop it verbally (not physically) or get help.  
> Levi bakes? Levi is a good cook, but he prefers quick foods that require very little prep because it's annoying to do much more.  
> Petra? Petra is Hange's cousin in LtC. She's is a year younger than them and lives across town. She often spends weekends at Hange's house. She has known Levi since they were little, and, though Levi respects her determination and strong will, her odd behavior around him these last few years annoys Levi.  
> Maybe, I should do another side chapter. I have a special one in mind, but there's also another one I wouldn't mind doing...  
> ... I think that is all my notes!
> 
> Thank you for reading LtC! I hope you continue to read this story of mine!  
> Please comment, and tell me what you thought!  
> See you next time!
> 
> PS: It has been confirmed that Levi cuts his own hair! I am excited to be keeping with the canon where I can! (says the writer of a modern setting, daycare au story)


End file.
